Days like this remind me that all too often we are preaching to the choir.
Having just graduated from my MBA program in Northern California, I experienced this realization in another group as well. Now that is a place where people are preaching to the choir! My fellow students seemed to have the same values, wanted to head into entrepreneurship (why? "To be my own boss!", and had similar goals for their futures in general. And I don't even think I went to a typical business school. The program was designed to get us there so we got similar coaching from everyone in career developments, and classes structured by professors based on the long accepted tenants of business.
I remember in one of my favorite classes, my professor putting a quote from Peter Drucker up on the board: "Culture eats strategy for breakfast." I love this idea of a giant culture monster snacking on strategy cookies. The best laid plans are only as good as the people who implement them - and if the people trying to implement a new culture or value system or anytime of change have no idea how to speak the same language as the people they are trying to change, change will never come.
Having graduated and gone into my dream field of sustainability, I see this all two often. We seem to cater our work and celebrate our victories with businesses who already "get" why sustainability is important, with students and interns who are willing to take no to low paying jobs to change the world...I want to start communicating with a different audience. Not that we should forget all these good hard working people. It's just that they already get it. And in my experience, there are enough people working with them that no one will notice if I wander off to find a new group to preach to.
That's why I decided to get my MBA. I wanted to speak the language of future CEOs, CFOs and the rest of the C-suite. I want to convince major business leadership that we need to start fostering a culture within our businesses that contributes to society and the environment in a sustainable and real way.
I want this new idea to link more people than it separates. With the new interconnectedness of the global community, revolutions have been started and relationships forever changed. Sustainability can follow this trend and use its overarching connection to everyone to break down walls. Sustainability must be added to how we view holistic business strategy - no matter the department or team or title - we must be asking ourselves, "will this last? Can design a system that recreates what it takes away?"
I think this is very possible. We need more people on board. We need to think that - possibly - sustainability cannot fit into the rigid boxes that Porter's forces drew around how we do business. That when we think about sustainability, it is a pursuit important enough to use teamwork. In the face of sustainability, we need our first reaction to competition to be partnership and collaboration - not a zero-sum game.
I am excited to see where the next few years take us. And can only hope we start preaching - eh, I don't really like the word - that we start the conversation about sustainability with some new audiences, in a language they can understand.
Having just graduated from my MBA program in Northern California, I experienced this realization in another group as well. Now that is a place where people are preaching to the choir! My fellow students seemed to have the same values, wanted to head into entrepreneurship (why? "To be my own boss!", and had similar goals for their futures in general. And I don't even think I went to a typical business school. The program was designed to get us there so we got similar coaching from everyone in career developments, and classes structured by professors based on the long accepted tenants of business.
I remember in one of my favorite classes, my professor putting a quote from Peter Drucker up on the board: "Culture eats strategy for breakfast." I love this idea of a giant culture monster snacking on strategy cookies. The best laid plans are only as good as the people who implement them - and if the people trying to implement a new culture or value system or anytime of change have no idea how to speak the same language as the people they are trying to change, change will never come.
Having graduated and gone into my dream field of sustainability, I see this all two often. We seem to cater our work and celebrate our victories with businesses who already "get" why sustainability is important, with students and interns who are willing to take no to low paying jobs to change the world...I want to start communicating with a different audience. Not that we should forget all these good hard working people. It's just that they already get it. And in my experience, there are enough people working with them that no one will notice if I wander off to find a new group to preach to.
That's why I decided to get my MBA. I wanted to speak the language of future CEOs, CFOs and the rest of the C-suite. I want to convince major business leadership that we need to start fostering a culture within our businesses that contributes to society and the environment in a sustainable and real way.
I want this new idea to link more people than it separates. With the new interconnectedness of the global community, revolutions have been started and relationships forever changed. Sustainability can follow this trend and use its overarching connection to everyone to break down walls. Sustainability must be added to how we view holistic business strategy - no matter the department or team or title - we must be asking ourselves, "will this last? Can design a system that recreates what it takes away?"
I think this is very possible. We need more people on board. We need to think that - possibly - sustainability cannot fit into the rigid boxes that Porter's forces drew around how we do business. That when we think about sustainability, it is a pursuit important enough to use teamwork. In the face of sustainability, we need our first reaction to competition to be partnership and collaboration - not a zero-sum game.
I am excited to see where the next few years take us. And can only hope we start preaching - eh, I don't really like the word - that we start the conversation about sustainability with some new audiences, in a language they can understand.
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